Category: Communication

Simon calls his book “touching the void”. How does he present the sense of danger and his effects on the climbers?.

‘It was as if the mountains were holding there breaths, waiting for another death’

Joe Simpson shows danger in the quotation ‘ it was as if the mountains were holding their breath, waiting for another death’ as he says the mountains were holding their breath and waiting for another death which is a metaphor because it’s describing how the mountain is acting. The chapter title is called Silent Witness. This will link to the quote as the mountain is patiently waiting alone in silence for either Joe or Simon to eventually die.

‘The idea of falling into that monstrous blackness yawning below me made me grip the rope tightly’ This quote was said by Joe Simpson  when he was hanging over a cliff in the chapter silent witness. He uses the word monstrous; monstrous has many meanings but in this case he means gigantic. Monstrous is a good way of saying there’s danger as it links back to our childhood memories of what monsters we’re and as a child we thought monsters are dangerous and horrifying, in Joes case the deep crevasse that is below him.

Over the years that I have been at London Nautical school there has always been a debate on which team is better than the other team. In my year, the majority of my year either support Arsenal, Manchester United or Chelsea, there are a couple that support Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspurs, I support Arsenal. Although I am talking about which of the top 6 teams in the premier league is better than the other, there is no-one that supports Manchester City. Back to my point, the top 6 as it stood last season was Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspurs and then Liverpool. Most of the arguments are about when your team loses over the weekend or in a competition e.g FA cup, Champions League, Europa League etc or where your team is currently standing the the table. These type of arguments mainly happen on Monday when we come back from the weekend. Sometimes during the arguments when a person  is proven wrong the person likes to bring up the history of the club, for example, lets say a person who supports Arsenal is debating with a person who supports Liverpool, if the person who supports Liverpool is proven wrong, then that Liverpool supporter will bring up about how they have won Champions League 5 times and how Arsenal has never won it, but then an Arsenal fan would say how they have won the premier league unbeaten (42 games without losing) and how Liverpool haven’t won the premier league for 25 years and still counting.

In 2013, Arsenal were going 9 years without silverware and to me and every Arsenal supporter was really bad as when the other teams were talking about the trophies over the years and we Arsenal supporters had no say into what they were discussing but then everything changed the next year. Arsenal went on to win the FA cup by losing 2-0 in the first 10 mins to winning 3-2 in extra time against Hull city, Aaron Ramsey was the goalscorer making every Arsenal fans dream come true(which was to win a trophy). Manchester city were the premier league champions that year leaving Liverpool fans Heartbroken as they were only 3 points away from winning the title, Chelsea finishing third and Arsenal finishing fourth in the league. That year was a really bad year for Manchester United fans as they finished seventh in the league which was a big advantage for other team supporters to mock their club on how badly they did that year.

The next season was a great year for Chelsea fans as they were champions of the premier league having only lost three games the whole season, they were followed by second place Manchester City, then arsenal in third and finally Manchester United in fourth. A big argument fell out between Liverpool and Tottenham as Liverpool finished sixth, two points behind Tottenham.

In my opinion I say that Arsenal are the best followed by Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham, Chelsea and then Manchester United. I didn’t put these in order because of which teams I like, I put them in order of how each team plays football. Normally people judge teams by how many trophies they have won over the years but football is not just about, its about how teams play football to satisfy fans all around the world by showing their amazing talent on the football pitch.                                                                                                                                   That’s why I picked Arsenal first not just because I support Arsenal( mainly the reason) but for how they play football and when I watch Arsenal play I can see the passion from the players and the hard work they put in into satisfying fans all around the world.

It was as if the mountains were holding their breath, waiting for another death (page 117)

The idea of falling into that monstrous blackness yawning below me (120)

It was barren and lifeless; i hated the place for its cruelty, and for what it had made me do. (150).

Joe and simon are in the middle of the cordillera.

They meet a person who is called richard to overlook there plans before they climb the mountain.

Joe explains as to why simon is the best climbing partner to have for this trip.

They both got food supplies from girls that already lived in the mountains.

The next day they set off to go to Yantauri and the day after they headed off to siera norte

They said to richard they will be back in 4-5 days

I remember it so clearly: the first time waking up too early at 6 in the morning, looking out the window and seeing it was still dark, getting dressed and having breakfast, waiting to leave for my first huge day at London Nautical School; my mum dropping me off at the school gate and seeing Mr Dastigir saying hello to us new Y7s and to the other years. At first I was scared because it’s a new school and I only knew a couple of people from primary and my football team; everyone was staring at me and even the building seemed to tower over me. I went to my form 7w2s and decided to hang around with them as I knew I’m going to be in that form group until I leave school. I remember being dazed, confused and lost nearly every day and always asking the Y8-11s where the classrooms were. Making friends was not really hard, I just did what the majority of my year did at break and lunch, and that was to play football. Lunch at the school was good, especially on Fridays as that was the day we got fish, chips and beans. After a month it got to a point were everyone in my year knew we were going to get the same food every week, which was from Mondays – Thursdays chicken and rice and on Fridays fish, chips and beans. It wasn’t long until me and the majority of my year was bringing packed lunch. It took me around two months to know where every classroom was, and by then I didn’t need my timetable because I knew my lessons off by heart.

Year 8 was way better. I’d made lots of new friends in all years. Weirdly though, the school hadn’t changed since we left for the summer: dirty smeared walls, chewing gum was fused to tables, the toilets with no toilet roll- it was all bizarrely the same as a year ago . But me and my mates were so different. Break and lunchtimes changed for me; my mates introduced me to a new game to play and that was called pat ball. Pat ball is where you have a tennis ball and you must hit the ball at the wall with your hands, but it has to bounce when you hit it. This is a game played by no more then 10 people- you can play with more, but it would be much longer to wait for your turn to hit the ball. Although pat ball was a fun game to play, there was also a negative side to the game: this was people from the same year and different years taking the ball and running away with it, never to return. Much to my amazement, lunch was still the same as last year and by the first month of Y8, I was fed up with the sameness and decided to stick to packed lunch for the rest of the year. Around February was a turning point for our form. The Science Department decided to do a football tournament for our year for the whole day. I was in the 8W2S team and we won the tournament, showing that our form was the best at football that year. Y8 was a much more relaxing year for me. I could just have fun without worrying about anything.

I arrived at the school gate, about to start Y9. I came with my little brother, who was starting his first year at London Nautical School. He was as nervous as I was when I started my first year, so I showed him around the school and he then made some friends from his form group, so I just left him to do what he wanted to do.

I went to where all of my friends were and that was the bench near the wall where we play pat ball. I then went to our form room which was Room 111, a science room. We then got our new planners and timetables and went to our first lessons. Break and lunchtime was still the same as last year – all of my mates playing pat ball. Lunch was still the same at the school, but I didn’t mind because I lost my lunch card around the first month of Y8, so I just had packed lunch again.

In the second month of Y9, we got a bit bored with pat ball. Instead we had a massive game of Family It, which was so exciting because loads of people started to join, making the game more interesting. Unfortunately, this game also had a negative side: because we were running in the school, teachers would stop you if they caught you and give you detentions, so we didn’t just have to look out for the other team, we also had to look out for the teachers. There were about 2 months left until the summer break and we had to pick our options for GCSE, so I picked Spanish, Geography, Economics and GCSE PE. One month left in Y9, and our Head of Year was giving out positions to become prefect. I missed the first deadline, and didn’t make it as one. Then some boys got kicked off from being a prefect because of their bad behaviour, so there were five positions left; I wrote in saying why I wanted to become a prefect, and I got the place. The reason I wanted to become prefect and I am ashamed of saying this, is not to serve the school with honour and pride, But escape from the torture that was being served in the schools kitchen every single day since I have been in this school. At last, I didn’t have to have the school’s dinner any more and also I didn’t have to wake up early to make a packed lunch.

George Flannagan’s version from last year

The task on our website.

Dear diary,

I woke up to my mums sweet, delicious pancakes again, if i keep on waking up to them im going to gain some weight.
After my pancakes i grabbed my jacket and left the house, it was so cold. I walked to the bus stop to meet up with my friends as they get the same bus and we always have the same talk about football. We always argue about the better team arsenal, man u or chelsea, to me arsenal is better. As i got off the bus i walked passed the imax and down the road i could see the schools flags and i walked down to school.

Jem, Dill and scout have learned different tactics in the courtroom that Atticus and Mr Gillmar do to try and get answers out of Tom Robinson and Miss mayella.

Atticus tactic that I read was that he asks the witness, Miss Mayella her personal information and then starts asking her questions about what happened over and over again to see if she would react in a different way or her tone of voice would change so she didn’t say the same answer in the same kind of voice.

Dill starting crying through the trial and Jem and Scout took Dill out of the courtroom for some fresh air. They then ask Dill what was wrong and why he was crying, he then later replied “its not fair how Tom robinson is getting put on trial and being in court for something he didn’t do”, and judging from the answers that Tom robinson has given in the courtroom I kind of agree with Dill because even Tom Robinson owner who he works for says that Tom robinson is a gentleman and wouldn’t do such a thing to a women in his life.

In the description of the courthouse (page 179) we (our class) found many different symbolisms.

To start off with one I’m going to be talking about the dust that floats around the court room floor. When I heard about the dust on the courtroom floor the first thing that I thought was the ashes of the other courthouse that burnt down. The reason behind this is because in another sentence it says “in spite of them” and when you say in spite of them what it means is for example when your trying to clean but there’s a party going on next door, your doing the cleaning in spite of the party so your doing the cleaning while ignoring the party, so when they built the new court house over the old courthouse they completely ignored it and they carried on building it.